Stop Being Jesus’ Lawyer

Today, I’m live-blogging from the Catalyst West conference in Irvine, California. Throughout today and tomorrow, I will be sharing leadership insights from the best and the brightest in the church and business world.

Bob Goff is an inspiration to everyone who meets him. Bob shares a love of family, friends, and God. He’s also the New York Times best-selling author of Love Does.

We’ve got so little time life when you consider the brevity of life. Life is short. Shorter than we often like to admit.

Say you live to be 92 years old. Say you have 12 conversations a day for your life. You’ll have approximately 42,000 conversations throughout your life.

Something amazing will happen. You’ll begin to realize who you are and what you’re becoming. It’s truly stunning.

When Bob and sweet Maria were married, it was said two will become one. Maria thought they’d become her (haha!) and Bob’s like “Oh noo!!!” as he’s super extroverted and she’s introverted.

More than becoming like each other, Bob and Maria desire to become more like Jesus. They don’t want to fight and be like a lawyer. They know there’s a better way. The Jesus way.

Love is sacrifice and commitment.

Do you want to be a person who is known for their love or for something else? If you’re known for your love, you’re going to be more like Jesus.

How much time do you spend avoiding the people Jesus spent time with and died for? Do you avoid the messiness and dirtiness of the lives of others? Is that Christlike if you do?

If you want to be like Jesus, you have to rub shoulders with those ucky, yucky, messy people of the world. You hold their hands as they go through their mess. You meet with them in their darkest hour. Or you choose to be their friend when they’re unfriendly.

Live in constant anticipation of what God will do in your life.

People will begin to change when you spend your time with them. When you get off your throne and let Jesus be on His throne doing His will, people will change.